Wasting Time Online Is Pretty Beneficial According To Smart People

I think one of the greatest investments you can make in modern time is anything to do with technology. It feels that every single year we keep getting introduced to newer crazier tech. Tesla is literally out here making cars drive themselves, we just put another rover on Mars, and I can use Alexa to turn on lights in my room, the future is here! These are positive changes in society, I'll tell you why newer technology even more valuable than ever before.

Alright now that I set you up with a great teaser, it's time to give some backstory.

So, researchers have been studying this concept known as Symbolic Interaction Theory (SIT) for many years, but it hasn't been until recently where they discovered how new technologies can help explain/enhance concepts to take them to the next level. SIT, originally created by philosopher George Herbert Mead (he had a great mustache) in the earlier 20th century, looks at how everyday social interactions make up society. In other words, he explained that individuals communicate together using symbols and context that define the overall interaction.

After this revolutionary discovery, researchers had a freakin' field day. A lot of studies about influence, shared meaning, and perception have been done as a result of SIT, but now thanks to that good ol technology, SIT is getting revamped in a pretty awesome way.

Researcher DJ Gunkel took some time away from spinning records and started looking at social interactions through online video games using avatars. To his amazement, he noticed that despite all the interactions taking place online, they mimicked how real-life interaction would take place. Pretty standard stuff, right? Wrong. This is huge for the field of SIT and it impacts each one of us, yes especially you.

My dude Gbola Olasina did a study demonstrating why this information is important.

He realized as technologies become more realistic, virtual worlds can be used to study how interaction happens in the real world. Instead of putting together major research studies that are expensive and time-consuming, researchers can now use simulations to get almost identical results. Results can be applied to an insane amount of possibilities. Teachers in a classroom practicing new methods? Easy. A business implementing new employee protocols? Cake. Why suburban moms feel the need to speak to a manager? You bet!

It's like that time Neo learned how to fight in the Matrix except we're using it for productive reasons.

What kind of technologies help with this you ask? Well, have you heard of HTC's Vive Virtual Reality console? The research possibilities are genuinely limitless.

Let me fill you in with an example. My roommate Austen is currently a research engineer for a company I don't know if I'm allowed to say or "cidkiiats" for short. In one of his recent projects, he created an entire store showing off brand new items his company had to offer, all in Virtual Reality. As people joined in and visited the store using their Vive, "cidkiiats" was able to watch their consumers interact with one another and talk about which products they were most excited for in real time.

They were able to track interaction and gather data about their consumers from remote locations! Georgey Mead would be foaming at the mouth with these types of possibilities ladies and gents.

It's interesting to think about the fact that a theory that was created over a century ago is getting reused thanks to a changing world. The potential is unmatched, we'll understand interactions and how they naturally occur all through some video games or simulations. This is what it's all about ladies and gents, the future is only going to get smarter.

It's ironic that all my "wasted" time on video games could potentially become valuable data for researchers.

The (In)Famous Youtuber, Olivia Jade, Exposed

"The New York Times" published an article on March 12, talking about the latest News of Olivia Jade. Olivia is a famous influencer on social media from YouTube to Instagram in which she collectively upholds millions of followers.

After Olivia posted two advertisements on Instagram following her college pathway, people began to questions the legitimacy of her enrollment at USC.

On Tuesday, March 12th, a federal investigation began, known as "Operation Varsity Blues," which covers the concept of bribery and committing other forms of fraud to get admitted into the college of their dreams.

Some possible acts of fraud include: having children falsely designated as athletic recruits; bribing proctors to edit answers on standardized college-entry exams and hiring people to pose as students to raise grade-point averages.

Her parents are said to have paid $500K for both Olivia and her sister, Isabella, to be placed as recruits for the university's crew team.

It is one thing to try and get around things in grade school and high school, but when it starts to reach college education and graduate programs, that's when the intensity escalates. College over the past couple years has become more and more difficult to get into. And with inflation, prices just seem to keep getting higher and higher. That's why this topic is quite sensitive.

It is not right and extremely inhumane to pay your way into college when students are working hard their entire life to get into their dream school and most of them don't even make it there. USC is a very well known university and especially known for its journalism and communication school, which is recognized as one of the top programs in the country.

People need to earn a spot in that school, not just be handed a letter of acceptance into a program we all strive to be in as intellectual students.

I am a student in which I feel I have worked extremely hard to earn the spot I have been granted within the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, but I also know my friends who got accepted into Ivy Leagues and UC schools, and the biggest thing that stood out to me was their work ethic.

We are being brought up into a generation in which things are handed to us, school has become easier in the sense that everything is on Google, we don't even have to read books anymore due to Spark Notes. We aren't being challenged enough as students, and now we have famous children being literally bought into the education program.

It is time for this kind of inhumane acts to stop and for children and parents to start realizing what hard work really looks like.